Thomas Dunhill (1877-1946) grew up in London and was part of the Dunhill
family which founded the famous tobacco shop in that city. He studied
composition at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford.
After graduating, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a teacher
and composer, eventually serving as a professor at the Royal College. He was
especially fond of chamber music and wrote a considerable amount.

His Phantasy Trio dates from 1911 and was
dedicated to William Wilson Cobbett who had created and endowed a famous
competition. The Cobbett Competitions where designed to encourage the younger
generation of British composers to write chamber music. The rules of the competition provided
an alternate format, the old English Fancy for Fantasia from the time of
Purcell, to the traditional four movement work which had developed from Haydn
onwards.

Although it is in one long movement, there are
various moods and tempi so that one could rightly say that there are several
sub-movements which form the whole. The music is by turns pastoral, lyrical,
dramatic and exciting. Our sound-bite presents the first third of this trio.

Here is a superb work for a combination for which
there is but a scanty repertoire. Long out of print and unavailable, we
recommend it to professionals and amateurs alike.